What is your favorite Wild West RPG?

[scourger]

Savage Worlds is my preference, and you can plug as little or as much Deadlands Reloaded into it as you want. I've got an old Boot Hill module that I can't wait to run with SW/DLR rules.

I had fun running Spellslinger for a while. But the shine is off the d20 penny now. In that vein, Sidewinder was interestingly written but didn't do it for me. I would just rather use the firearms rules from the DMG if I were to do another d20 Western game. The advantage is that everyone I game with knows the d20 system already, and d20 is very manageable without the magic.

I thought I would like Aces & Eights more than I did. It was a great read, but it just wasn't for me in the rules mechanics. Their squared faro cards are a great addition for the game I do plan to run, though.

 

[amethal]

If you like d20 but don't want hit points, you could try using True20.

There'd be a fair number of flesh wounds, but the next shot can always kill you (once you run out of Conviction, anyway).

The conviction mechanic, coupled with mook rules, could probably do a reasonable job of representing the fact that the ace gunfighter guns down any number of plebs with one shot each but somehow can't quite seem to hit the main bad guy.

I'm not sure how adding your level to defence would work out; gives about a 50% chance of missing an equally skilled opponent from point blank range.

Ronin Arts has a Wild West supplement for True20 written by Charles Rice. Its available from the Green Ronin store; dunno about elsewhere. Its short, but has some interesting genre information - and if you already have Sidewinder then presumably you have plenty of fluff already.

 

[Atomo]

Werewolf Wild West (from the OWoD)... Just forget the werewolf part.
(Sorry, could not resist )

 

[sjmiller]

I know that people tend to avoid mentioning it, but GURPS Wild West is a good game setting. There is a lot of historical info, info for making a fantasy west, even info for doing a lost worlds meets the wild west game. I find the system easy to use. You just scale the level of detail to suit your personal taste, and that includes the combat system. Just reading through the book gave me tons of ideas for a campaign.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Spellslinger is an awesome mini-setting and I'd LOVE to run a short campaign in it, whether using d20 or Savage Worlds.

Savage Worlds is a great, fun system with some annoying flaws (mostly in the magic system, for me).

 

[haakon1]

I've been considering running a wild west RPG but I can't find a system that I like. I'd prefer one that is not very complex so we don't have to learn lots of rules but is complete enough that I (as the GM) won't have to make up any rules on my own.

I like Boot Hill, in all editions. The earliest brown-cover rulebook was as simple and fun as OD&D. There's a red cover edition that's more like AD&D, and I guess it's called 3rd Edition that's still simple but more full-bodied. The last version was simple and intuitive enough to play over email, yet full-bodied enough that I was able to play a full campaign over a few years with it.

And combat is not about hit points and cumulative damage. You CAN die like that, but it's much more common to die straight out from a bad hit. As I remember, d6 damage, 6 means dead, +1 for head and chest shots (roll a d10 for location, and there's about a 40% chance of that), and +1 for shotguns, maybe? Deadliest RPG I've ever run a campaign of. To me, it's like Unforgiven -- if you're gunna have a gunfight, you better be damned serious about it, 'cause there's a good chance you'll end up in a coffin.

 

[Emryys]

We had a lot of fun with "Go for Your Gun", but we did end up with 4 or 5 house rules to fix things we did not like.

GFYG as the base, then use Sidewinder:RC to add in some cool options... or...
Deadland:RL minus the Fantasy/Arcane stuff for a straight spaghetti Western...